would do more towards setting us mutually right, where we are wrong, than a millennium of wrangling."

3. Covetous passions greatly hinder and disturb a man in prayer.

The love of money is combined with a multitude of other evil passions, which derive their strength from it. Hence unhallowed ambition, corroding envy, and pining discontent, with all their selfish brood and sordid train. Covetousness is a canker that not only encrusts and deforms the surface, but eats its way to the very centre of the soul. And what can be expected, where this is the shell and shew of religion?

case, but the mere "And they come

unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. (Ezek. xxxiii. 31.) He that says to gold, Thou art my trust, and to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; he that seeks his portion in this life, and follows the wages of unrighteousness, may prophesy like a Balaam, and preach like an Apostle, but can never really pray as a saint does. Well then, did Christ warn his disciples, saying, "Take heed and beware of covetousness!" If you value the holy light, liberty,

and joy of heaven, shun every path which leads to the gloomy den of Pluto, the horrid cave of Mammon.

In the primitive times of Christianity, we are told, a devout man, whose prayers had recovered many from sickness, was sent for by Cromatius, a rich heathen, when he found his life in imminent danger." Let all your idols be destroyed," said the Christian. "There, take my keys," replied the dying man, " and destroy them if that be necessary." This being done, the Christian said, "All are not demolished." "True," answered Cromatius; "there is one left, but it is all of beaten gold, and cost me a vast sum, and therefore I would fain save it.”—“ Bring it forth," said his faithful reprover and fervent intercessor; "bring it forth, without delay; for if that be saved, thou wilt be lost."-Let this story instruct us. Every idol must be abandoned, that prayer may prevail. He that, like Enoch, would walk with God, must not, like Judas, set his heart on the world, and enter into compact with the agents of the devil.

II. Those evil passions, which hinder and disturb us in prayer, ought certainly to be subdued.

The principles which the Gospel inculcates,

and the prospects which it opens before us, require the subjugation of sensual propensities. To indulge them at the expense of degrading our higher powers, or injuring our future interests, is to forget the great design, and oppose the whole authority of Christ in his word. The false prophet of Arabia taught his followers, that paradise affords its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights, that man would sink under them, did not God give unto every person the strength of an hundred, for the enjoyment of them. Hence, as Mr. Gibbon observes, "instead of inspiring the blessed inhabitants of paradise with a liberal taste for harmony and science, conversation and friendship; Mahomet idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds, the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines, artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual and costly luxury."

The Christian has nobler objects set before him, and purer principles planted within him. "He is to set his affections on things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God; to mortify his members which are on earth, and to follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Do you ask, how is all this to be done? I will answer in the words of an inspired writer, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

Oh, what an inestimable privilege, to think and speak, move and act, under the supernatural agency of the Divine Spirit! And this privilege have all the saints, though it is not by all equally prized and improved. If all the kings and emperors in the world were to lavish their most valuable presents upon a single individual, their united treasures and honours would be but toys and trifles, compared with the precious gift of the Holy Spirit, bestowed by the King of Zion.

Again, the irascible passions need be subdued, by a strict self-government.

In passing through a world so full of envy, rivalry and strife, where warring opinions and clashing interests are incessantly agitating all ranks, it is impossible but offences will come. We must therefore calculate upon meeting disappointments and provocations. In such circumstances, by yielding to irritable tempers, by catching and cherishing resentments, by entering into eager competitions, or fiery conflicts, we shall do ourselves more injury than all our enemies can do us. These feelings unhinge and disorder the mind, and indispose it for the sweet exercises of prayer; they alienate the heart from God, and lay it open to the inroads of the Tempter. There is a Christian magnanimity, of more real value than all the splendid accomplishments and trophies, which

poets and orators have celebrated.

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He that is slow to anger, is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit, than he that taketh a city." Why is so vast variety of precepts, and lessons, and examples, of meekness given us in the Gospel, but to direct and assist us in the internal discipline, by which we are to be formed and trained to this Christian magnanimity? Some persons, professing godliness, have attempted to palliate their sallies of passion, or habits of peevishness, by pleading that they are constitutionally subject to these infirmities. The plea is inadmissible, the poor excuse is too flimsy to bear examining. Let such persons remember, that natural constitution must bend to the constitution of the Gospel, under which they are now placed. What this latter is, and by its very essential principles requires, may be distinctly seen in the following passage. "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Eph. iv. 26–32.

That the mind may be in a state fit for prayer,